


Just Once

by writingramblr



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crushes, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Mild Cheating, Mildly Dubious Consent, episode 6 redeux, post traumatic event
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-24 13:42:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8374297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingramblr/pseuds/writingramblr
Summary: [Spending the night with Nancy was for both of their sakes, that's what he tells himself]





	

**Author's Note:**

> all it took was once and jonathan then *knew* he was fucked.
> 
>  
> 
> bc these cuties need all the fluff and angst and kisses.

Her hair is damp as she walks out of the bathroom, but he can smell something sickeningly sweet like strawberries when she first passes by him. he stands, waits, uncertain.

She says she doesn’t want to be alone.

So he stays.

At first he’s proper, noble, on the floor, a decent virtual yard between them. Then she says she needs him.

Well.

Maybe not in so many words.

He moves up to her bed, so much closer but still so far away.

Definitely strawberry, but something sharper, like kiwi.

She’s not looking at him, she’s got her arms clutched tight, hugging herself. It makes something inside his chest clench up tight, and he reaches for her before he can stop to think of the reasons why he shouldn’t.

They begin and end with ‘ _Steve.’_

One hand first, just sort of patting over hers, his hand much warmer, she’s almost chilled to the bone, despite the long hot shower.

“Are you okay?”

He finally asks, a hush of a whisper, as if not sure he wants her to hear.

She doesn’t quite shake her head.

His hand tightens over hers, and she lets him.

He’s only a few inches away, with any real amount of effort he could be holding her against his chest. she’s so cold, so cold, he decides he’s just brave enough to ask.

He did pull her back from the jaws of hell…or something.

“Can I-?”

His voice shatters on the last word, and he’s just sighing, pathetic, sad, and she’s turning to look at him, eyes dark and liquid in the warm lamplight.

She’s blinking, licking her lips, and nodding for real now.

She practically rolls into him, and he wraps his arms around her so fast it’s like second nature.

Like she belongs there.

Her breathing slows down and he’s certain she’s fallen asleep, before he finally closes the distance between his lips and her forehead.

She’s warming now, and she’s not shaking.

He falls asleep too, his chin brushing her cheek.

*

The snarl, the blank face, millions of hundreds of teeth.

Nancy jerks awake, and she fights to catch her breath before she remembers.

_He saved her._

 

He’s still there.

Jonathan.

The not pretentious creep.

The _hero_.

“hey.”

His voice is like a fingertip tracing over bare skin. So soft, so gentle, as if she’d imagined it.

Of course she woke him up.

She almost pushed him out of the bed.

She realizes he’s holding her tight nearly the second he does, and he begins to pull back, to give her space.

“Wait…”

He stops, one palm still splayed against her back, she’s practically lying on his chest, his heartbeat thundering beneath her cheek.

The sun is still sleeping, and she glances over at the clock on her bedside table.

4:00

Two more hours til the rest of the house will be up and about.

Maybe three if they’re lucky.

He’s quiet. Silent.

Just watching her, waiting for her to tell him to leave, or to fall back against him.

But now she’s trapped. Caught.

Staring right back at him.

He blinks, and then starts to smile.

It looks good on him.

“What?”

She finally asks.

“You just…looked like you were looking at a painting or something.”

Lost in thought.

She’s trying to find something clever to say, yes.

Instead she leans up, and puts a hand on his shoulder, drifting down just to graze his cheek with a kiss.

“I don’t think I told you…thank you.”

His cheeks are pinking, and it’s not just her imagination.

“Of course yeah, I couldn’t lose someone else.”

He goes somber, and she knows he’s thinking about Will.

But it pangs at her, digs at her heart.

Is she someone he cares about…too?

Her eyes drag down the length of his face, and she pulls away, before she does something really stupid, like see what it would be like to kiss _him._ really.

“Should I go? Would it be easier if I left now?”

She opens her mouth to protest, and gets caught staring at a stray lock of brown hair falling into his eyes, as he’s sat up slightly, pushed up on an elbow, leaning over her.

She didn’t remember collapsing against the pillows again.

“No.”

She reaches out, almost before she can stop, before she can help it, her fingers brush over his forehead, stroke the hair back, and he’s leaning into it, nuzzling his cheek into her palm.

_What has she done?_

She’s given Jonathan Byers a piece of her, that should be only for Steve.

*

She’s touching him.

Not even by accident.

There’s literally no way.

And he can’t help but savor every damn second. It feels so nice, just being seen.

“I want you to stay.”

She says, and the words are sweeter than her shampoo, dousing his senses in adoration. Platonic as it may be, he’s still right beside her, in her bed.

It’s still dark out. Still a forbidden hour, a crescent moon.

“Okay.”

Her hand drops from his face but catches on his shoulder, and without thinking about it, she’s grasping at his shirt, and pulling him closer.

His heartbeat probably just skipped a few, or stopped altogether, but she’s kissing him, and he’s half on top of her, and maybe has died and just gone to heaven.

Or it’s all a dream, too good, too forbidden to have, right next to her as he is.

Her other arm wraps around his back, fingers darting over his spine, and he’s certain that its real now.

He dares to slip his tongue between her lips and she sighs something.

“Mmm.”  


He’s bracing himself on the bed, on his hands, so he doesn’t crush her, or touch her anymore than she could want, but that little sound, it is almost enough to break his concentration.

“Nancy…I shouldn’t.”

He stops the kiss, just to point out the obvious, he’s the one who’s sinning, not her.

She’s confused, and needs comfort, and he just happens to be there.

But he can’t forget who she truly cares for. Who cares for her. Besides him.

“What?”

Cute little crinkles appear between her eyebrows, and she’s looking up at him almost in a daze, as if she’d been half asleep herself.

“This is…a bad idea.”

Nancy is moving, shifting, preparing to slap him, kick him, push him off the bed.

He lets her.

But all she does is press him back against the bed, and loom over him like some kind of glorious dark angel.

“Almost dying was a bad idea. Going out into the woods at night was a bad idea. This…is harmless.”

He wants to believe it.

He can see she does too.

He closes his eyes, and lets her kiss him again, and he tries, he really tries.

But it’s far too late.

He’s already half in love with her as it is.

This, is the final nail in that coffin.

*

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> tenses are weird on purpose...fret not


End file.
